Tools for Enhancing Awareness and Initiating and Evaluating Change

1. LL549Week 2 Tools for Enhancing Awareness and Initiating and Evaluating Change

2. Setting the Foundation 1. MEETING ETHICAL GUIDELINES AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS 2. ESTABLISHING THE COACHING AGREEMENT

3. Co-Creating the Relationship 3. ESTABLISHING TRUST AND INTIMACY WITH THE CLIENT 4. COACHING PRESENCE

4. Communicating Effectively 5. ACTIVE LISTENING 6. POWERFUL QUESTIONING 7. DIRECT COMMUNICATION

5. Facilitating Learning and Results 8. CREATING AWARENESS 9. DESIGNING ACTIONS 10. PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING 11. MANAGING PROGRESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

6. Introductions • Sharing my background relevant to assessments

7. Your Frame For This Class • What is your opinion of assessments in coaching? • What are your goals for the class?

8. What is an Assessment? • The process of gathering and interpreting data from diverse sources in order to develop awareness and understanding • Provides information which is often measured against a set of standards or guidelines • Offers a new lens for seeing an individual or situation

9. What is an Assessment? • In this course, we are talking in the “tools” sense of “assessment”. • The goal is to offer a clear, and perhaps novel, picture of the individual that contributes to his/her awareness and ability to take effective action.

10. Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching “…one of the most important factors to the success of a coaching program happens before coaching begins: formal assessments. These can uncover areas of strength and weakness, drive an employee’s motivation to change, and provide a roadmap for individual development.” – HR Focus, July 2006

11. Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching • “Despite the importance of pre-coaching assessments, less than 20% of employee coaching is based on sound psychological testing, observed Wayne Nemeroff, CEO of PsyMax Solutions (Cleveland). • Instead, most coaching relies on a coach’s “intuition and experience.” – HR Focus, July 2006

12. Value of Assessments as Part of Coaching “the growing demand for corporate coaches and the lack of coaching certification requirements mean that some marginally qualified people are out there offering coaching.” – HR Focus, July 2006

13. Have You Used Assessments Before? • Poll about experience • Poll about which assessments

14. Have You Ever Taken An Assessment? • What was it? • Why did you take it? • What did you learn?

15. Have You Ever Taken An Assessment? • What did you DO with the information? • Did you have a coach working with you to enable you to take action? • If so, was it effective? • If not, would a coach have contributed to the value of the assessment?

16. When Should You Use Assessments In Coaching?

17. When To Use Assessments In Coaching • Before you begin working with a client • As part of a complimentary coaching session to provide immediate value • A tool to develop rapport and trust • A marketing tool • In person, on the phone, on your web site, as part of a presentation • As part of your process of evaluating if you are the right coach for this client

18. When To Use Assessments In Coaching • When you start the coaching relationship • As part of your initial client package: • Helps jump start the coaching • Reduces any client anxiety about what to talk about • Minimizes your concern about where to begin • Provides a baseline against which to measure change

19. When To Use Assessments In Coaching • When a particular challenge comes up that the client/you want to more fullyunderstand • To jump start the process of change • To provide a comprehensive overview • To enable the client to feel less overwhelmed by the enormity or lack of clarity they have about this issue • To save time within the coaching session for doing the work

20. When To Use Assessments In Coaching • To help a client get unstuck • An assessment can shine a light on areas a client may not be aware of • An assessment can give you information that helps you guide the client to a new focus • An assessment can shift the way in which you are coaching and get you out of your coaching ruts

21. When To Use Assessments In Coaching • To evaluate change • Using the same tool at multiple points in time provides the client with “evidence” of their progress • Return on Investment (ROI) is demanded by some corporate and non-corporate coaching clients • This can be the basis for deciding whether to continue coaching • This can be the basis for testimonials that contribute to your building a coaching business

22. Barriers To Using Assessments • I don’t have any to use. • I don’t have the credentials to use them. • I don’t like assessments. • My clients don’t like assessments. • They are too expensive. • What else?

23. Barriers To Using Assessments • I don’t have any to use. • There are abundant assessments available to you at no or low cost through books and the Internet. • Balance Wheel, Clean Sweep, StrengthsFinder… • You can generate assessments yourself if no one else has figured out how to measure what you’d like to assess.

24. Barriers To Using Assessments • I don’t like assessments. • What is it about them you do not like?– Are you open to not yet making a decision on whether you like them or not? • What would it take for you to shift your perspective on this?

25. Barriers To Using Assessments • I don’t have the credentials to use them. • Some assessments don’t require credentials • If you find an assessment that you like that requires a credential to use you can: • Become credentialed, which can be costly yet also provides you with an ongoing resource, new colleagues, and often a way to get referred. • Develop a relationship with another coach or consultant credentialed in this measure and refer your client to them. • If you do this, decide how to include this in your coaching and whether to join your client for the interpretation session.

26. Barriers To Using Assessments • My clients don’t like assessments. • What is it about them they don’t like? • Does this come up in other areas where they make up their mind without trying something? What’s the impact? • Are they open to reconsidering whether an assessment might be of value to them now? • Are you comfortable that you can bring them value?

27. Barriers To Using Assessments • They are too expensive. • Are there free or inexpensive tools that would be valuable to your client? • How have you tried to identify tools? • Have you done a simple Google search? • Have you done a library search of articles? • Have you posted a question to other UTD coaches, or on Linked In or similar sites? • Is your client’s not wanting to invest in themselves a bigger issue than merely money?

28. Balance Wheel: An Example

29. Wheel Of Leadership

30. Assignment for Week Two • Complete the Clean Sweep Assessment (available at http://www.betterme.org/cleansweep.html and many other sites if you google Clean Sweep Assessment) • Complete one of the values tests online at • http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/valuestest.html Values Test: Ranking four choices for each of six items. • www.authentichappiness.com Values in Action (VIA) Signature Strengths, 240 items • http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/time/workinv.html Work Values Inventory, 45 items. • Come ready to share your experience—and to coach or be coached on your results.

31. Characteristics of assessments, including their qualitative and quantitative features. • Values homework and demo. • Evaluating assessments.

32. Clean Sweep: A Client Example • Judith began coaching with a goal to have more time and energy to do the things she wanted. She wished she felt more focused. • When she first completed Clean Sweep, her total score was 44: • 12 on physical environment • 11 on money • 12 on health and emotional balance, and • 9 on relationships • She addressed the “easy” items and felt a surge of energy and confidence. Two months later, her score was 65 and she had begun to focus on what she really wanted, instead of what she did not want.

33. Clean Sweep: Coaching Your Client to New Awareness • What do you notice about your Clean Sweep? • Was there something that really pleased you about your results? • What do you notice that you are putting up with? • What is the cost of that for you?

34. Awareness to Action • What would you like your Clean Sweep to look like in two months from now? • When you look at your responses, what two or three things do you think would be easy to change? • What impact would that have? • On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to do this? How will you let me know? • What else might you want to do to take advantage of this new awareness?

35. Clean Sweep, As a Class • What awareness or value did it provide to you? • Is it essential that you as a coach have first hand experience with any assessment tool you recommend to a client? • In what circumstances would you use this with a client? • Would you recommend it to others?

36. Characteristics of Assessments:Qualitative Features • Ease of use-is it easily accessed, understood, scored, and interpreted? • Attractiveness-is it attractive and professional in appearance? • Development: Theory/conceptual base- what is the underlying theory and is this something you understand, trust, and can explain to a client?

37. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Reliability • Validity • Errors of Measurement • Norms

38. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Reliability: the consistency of test scores from one time to the next • “r” is a statistic that compares scores from one time to the next. • The possible range of values is -1 to +1. A value 1 is a perfect correlation, meaning the exact same scores were obtained both times. • A correlation of .8 is considered quite good for most measures. • How reliable is Clean Sweep in your view? • If you retook it next week, how different would your scores be? • Are there any data to support this?

39. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Validity: evidence that supports that a tool measures what it says it does. Some forms include: • Face validity-does it look like it measures what it says it does? • Predictive validity–does a given score predict performance? (e.g., a low self esteem score might predict that a person would not enter a “best of the best” contest)

40. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Construct validity-does the tool accurately reflect or measure an underlying social construct (e.g., emotional intelligence)self esteem might assess different aspects • Content validity-does the measure assess all aspects of the given concept? (e.g., a measure of self esteem might assess different aspects—such as self esteem regarding appearance and self esteem regarding academic or work performance)

41. Characteristics of Assessments: Validity • What kind of validity did the Clean Sweep tool have? • Face validity-did it appear to measure what it said it did (i.e., energy drains, tolerations)? • Predictive validity–does a given score predict performance? (e.g., does a high score predict greater productivity?) • Construct validity-does the tool accurately reflect or measure an underlying social construct? • Content validity-does the measure assess all aspects of the given concept (or are there other things we tolerate that aren’t included)?

42. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Errors of Measurement: various kinds of error associated with a test score that may impact scores. • How can you reduce or eliminate the influence of any extraneous factors that are unrelated to what the assessment is attempting to measure? (e.g., test taking concerns, desire to appear in a favorable light, familiarity with the measure) • E.g., with Clean Sweep, were there factors such as concern about how you would look to your peers that made you more or less likely to check an item?

43. Characteristics of Assessments:Quantitative Features • Norms: existing data on test takers that allow for the comparison of one individual's score to those of a large group to aid in interpretation • For example, with Clean Sweep, many practitioners will offer an imprecise norm such as “most people score between 30 and 60 the first time they take this” or “it’s unusual to score higher than 70 the first time you take this”

44. Evaluating Assessments • Is it a poor tool if it's not rigorously developed? • Does it depend on your goals for the assessment? • Does it depend on your expertise and comfort with the tool? • Does it depend on the client?

45. Evaluating Assessments • What other criteria do you want to use for evaluation of an assessment tool? • What evaluation criteria match best who you are as a coach, the kinds of clients you enjoy most, and the kind of coaching you do?

46. Looking at a Client's ValuesPart 1 • Values concern what people want/what is important to them rather than how they behave. • Values assessments may be used for: • Self-awareness: • What is important to and how it aligns with how you are spending your time and energy • How your values explain the challenges you are experiencing (e.g., competing values) • Career guidance: values as a tool for determining best fit with a career • (e.g., someone who values innovation may not be best suited to a career as a CPA)

47. Looking at a Client's ValuesPart 2 • Values concern what people want/what is important to them rather than how they behave. • Personnel selection: alignment between an applicant’s values and the demands of a particular job, career, or organizational culture • Communication & Team Building: looking at common values, differing values, and ways to understand and leverage values in an organization; shared values as common ground

48. Your Values Assessment Experience • Values Test: Ranking four choices for each of six items. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/valuestest.html • Five Factors Values Test. http://www.blogthings.com/thefivefactorvaluestest • Work Values Inventory http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/time/workinv.html

49. Values: From Awareness to Action • What is a challenging situation you are facing right now? • What are your goals in this situation? • Which of your values serves you best in accomplishing your goals in dealing effectively with this situation? • Given that xxx is a value you hold dear, what action will you take in this situation? • Is there a different priority value you want to choose to focus on instead that will impact your ability to take action? • What will you commit to doing?

50. Looking at a Client's Values--PIAV Personal Interests Attitudes and Values profile. • Answers questions such as what motivates you? What is important to you? Why do you work? • Ranks a person’s attitudes based on six core motivators: • Theoretical--Truth, knowledge, learning, objectivity. • Utilitarian--What is useful, will work, will make money. • Aesthetic--Creative expression, experience, harmony, beauty. • Social--People, interpersonal relationships, caring and nurturing. • Individualistic--Advancement, achievement, assertion. • Traditional--Finding the highest values in life, living according to clear set of rules.